Author
Topic: 1st hive extraction (Read 3449 times)

ok here the story, my bug man came by yesturday to spray my home and told me he didnt know I had hives, I told him if he ever gets called to get rid of bee's to call me before he kills them and he told me he wished he knew that because he bomded one last week, well as the story goes he called me today and told me the bee's didnt die and if I wanted them to go see if i could get them, well i went and looked, dead bee's everywhere but still 1000's of bees coming and going and some in the hive, there in a overhang of the second floor but the building has a porch on the first floor I could work off of, the overhang is vinyl siding (lucky), thing I was wondering about sence the hive was bomded and the queen might have been killed, would this be a good time to get them, they might be raising a new queen and if I tear the siding down and some how mess up the queen cells, the hive might die ?, I would like to keep a black queen from this hive, i was going to leave a nuc with some comb in it and go back that night to retrieve it with the foragers (hopefully) , the entrance to the hive is under the drip edge, so the entrance to the nuc will be about 2 inches above there hive entrance and I im going to close up the old hive entrance, any advice would be appreciated, this will be my first feral hive to remove, and these bee's are pretty black bee's, they said the hive has been there for about 2 years. I'm going to get them this weekend when no one's at the county building so I have 4 days to get ready but I am also working nights , get off work friday morning. this will be fun as long as I dont tear up the building lol , oh and I dont have a bee-vac. I might try a old week dust buster????

Logged

THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new. Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic

About 20 years ago I had a simular situation with a hive in an old house. I didn't want to tear up the wall so I plugged all the holes the bees were comming out of except the main one and then put about an 8 inch cone of screen wire with a hole at the outer end just big enough for a single bee to leave over the entrance. The bees will leave out the end of the cone but will be unable to find the opening to go back in because they fly straight to the hole and are blocked by the wire.

I then used a rope to pull an existing two deep hive under the ladder until it was as high as possible and the entrance was as close to the screen as possilbe. What happens is that when the forager bees from the house return, they can't get back into their old home. Since they are carrying pollen, they are accepted in the hive I put near their entrance. After a couple of months (this isn't a fast process) all the bees have hatched and left as foragers and with no worker bees to feed the queen, she dies. I don't know how long this takes, exactly. Perhaps someone with a little more knowledge could work out the timetable for this.

I then removed the screen and now the bees in my hive went back in and robbed all the stored honey out of the wall.

Up side of this: When I released the ropes holding my hive up under the ladder, I was almost pulled up and almost met the beehive on the way down like the story of the guy with the bricks posted on this forum about a month ago. I had no idea the hive could be that full of honey.

The down side: You still need to open up the wall and remove the wax because in the summer with no bees to ventilate the wall the wax will melt and run down the walls and into the house. It will also begin to stink as the wax moths get to it. However, you can now do it at your leisure without bees to object.

You don't really get an extra hive this way, but you can sure build up a small hive or a newly installed nuc.

Fuzzy's method is a good one. You can get an extra hive by just putting a caged queen in the new hive. The field bees returning with come to accept the new queen and release her. Once the new colony becomes strong, you can let them rob out the old colony. You don't have to wait for it to die off.

As far as removing the old comb, I doubt your bug man had any intention of going back and cleaning it out after he bombed them. So I wouldn't sign up for it either.

Also since they had been bombed, I don't know if I would want the wax anyways.

I have used a similar method to Fuzzy's. I cut a 4" hole in the back of a deep super and installed a 12" length of PVC pipe in the hole. Inside the pipe I made a screen funnel that only allows the bees to enter bot not exit through. I then nail on a bottom board so that the pipe is in the back and put on a cover.

I then just place the hive (with a caged queen) in front of the entrance so that the pipe is over the hole and the bees must exit thru the hive. (Duct tape helps, as does canned foam insulation )

I'll try to post a picture or two if I can remember to

Logged

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Edison

they want this hive close up before monday, worker coming back, I im going for are the bee's, I was wondering sence it was bomded, would the wax still be good and if the queen didn't make it would the eggs and young larva survive,( I want a queen from this hive, always wanted some black feral bee's)it was a week ago when it was bomded and there are still alot of bee's there. I was thinking if it was that bad wouldnt all the bee's be dead and or left the hive, seen some pretty white (like new) comb.

Logged

THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new. Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic

I hate to say it, but if the wax, honey and bees have been exposed to pesticides I wouldn't try to salvage any of it - too risky. It wouldn't surprise me if the bees they're seeing are ones that were newly hatched and under cappings when pesticides were applied and or foragers that were out of the hive when bombed.

I would be most concerned that the wax and honey is contaminated by the pesticides. If you really want them, the only way I see to do it would be to use a beevac and then install them on foundation or put them in a dead out. I've talked with some of the old-timers about the German Black bee and it sounded pretty snotty. That's a stretch, color means very little and those bees are probably just a dark italian.

a old buddie of mine (a beekeeper for many years) told me not to smoke the hive and find the queen by looking over 1 piece of comb at a time until i find her, he said if i smoke them the queen will run and hide, he said when i find the queen put her in a queen catcher ( http://www.betterbee.com/products.asp?dept=640 ) and get the rest of the comb, then hang the queen in the queen catcher within 2 feet from the entrance of thier hive in the building, go back later that evening and all the bees will be clustered on the catcher with the queen, take the string with the cluster and put them in the hive I bring. does this sound like a way to yall? sounds good to me, ever heard of it before?

Logged

THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new. Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic

Sounds like it might work. I have been taking the brood comb and tying it into frames and place them in the hive body. Rip out the rest of the comb and either place it in a box for them to rob or seal it up and carry it off. Then about dusk all the bees are in the box. Except those pesky church bees that didn't cooperate. Perhaps that was because the queen went/stayed at the building.

Logged

:rainbowflower: Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak. :rainbowflower: